It Cannot be ?

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 29 September 1891, Page 3

It Cannot be ?

— ?#^#'- ■ • — —~ The cbArmriig correspondent, who signs herself " Madge" of the Wanganui lUraU is wonderfully in love with the Premier. It is fortunate the session is at an end, or more might be heard about it. In July she delighted her Wanganui readers by asserting that John Ballance •' stands without a peer in the House? that however is saying little. In any representative Assembly in any country in the world, Ua would take ft foremost place, and as regards our own he stands in general intellectual capacity, in powev of clear thought, classification of ideas, and facility of expression, and above all in that generous human sympathy minus which no statesman can claim to be truly great — head and shoulders above every man in it — but stay ; must I not except our G.O.M e >— Well, no 1 not even him." After which she declares that she is " not deifying him." In her last last letter, in Friday]s issue of the Ileiald she states " It is always a treat to hear Mr Ballance make a speech, and it was especially enjoyable on Monday night, because lately wo have been considerably overdosed by eloquence of the " foghorn order." " Madge" could not have been more laudatory of the Premier even if she happened to be Mrs Ballance, but though our contemporary the Mercury hinted at tiueh being the case, we cannot belifive that the wife of the Premier would write, even of the Opposition us this correspondent writes. Instance the peculiarly ladylike manner of her last letter. An excuse certainly is made at the start, by her having arrived at the fact that " a Parliamentary career must of necessity be deteriorating to all save perhaps incorruptible natures— if any such there be." But after what we have read about the Hon John Ballanee, surely there should have been a doubt in her mind' about others also. However it does not appear to have ber.n the case, and she thus sums up the House :-" In a multitude of counsellors is wisdom, undoubtedly though not necessarily a very large amount; but, also, there you will find - too often en evidence - all the darker qualities which disfigure our poor humanity ; envy, hatred, malice snbtilty, selfishness, and such-like. A rep is not necessarily a superior being iv any sense, and here, in this inaelstorm of pqflMcs, his worst propensities are ebnl*tntly called into play, with the result that ' wrath, and clamour, and evil-speaking,' alternated with bland hypocrisies, too often distinguish deliberations popularly supposed to be invariably conducted with decency if not dignity." After a few lines of abuse of certain members of the Opposition this "lady" writes:— "But to return to the menagerie. Shut your eyes, during a " scene," and you can easily fancy you hear the barking of wild dogs, the braying of— well—" rural Neddies," the grunt of the wild boar, varied by an occasional snort which startles you into sudden sickness, (mem., the member tor G c might, in deference to a disgusted ladies 1 gallery, invest a part of his honorarium in a pookethanky)." It seems to have escaped this very rabid supporter of the Government, that disorder of any kind, so noticeable apparently only this session, has arisen from the very poor selection that was made by the Government in the appointments of Speaker and Chairman of Coinniitfees. The Government claim a large majority, but if «• Madge" is to be credited, they have utterly failed in being able to conduct their business decently a,nd in order. Is the Opposition wholly to blame for this ? Hansard proves the oontrary. Still " Madge" is writing up the Premier, if not the Government, and therefore thinks she is perfectly justified in writing down the Opposition. We quote one more specimen from her letter, which resembles the style of a rough ' foot-baller instead of the gjise which is supposed to be assumed, viz., that of a lady. Next to "Bully" Buckland sits the member for Tuapeka, and in front, T. McKenzie, of Clutha the trio forming the leading members of the vulgar band of " barrackers," which the leader of the Opposition finda so difficult of control." t The Premier has been openly aconssd of shuffling with the Women's Franchise Bill, and it is Hnown that the Government were divided upon it, and in time to come it may be found that the ffwald's " Madge" was answerable for it all as Byron remarked But— oh ! ye lords of ladies intellectual ! Inform us truly, have they not hen-pecked yOU all ? mmmmmmmmmmmtm^mmm.